Key concepts

Then, as now, it made me ponder how long I have owned this particular key ring:

And man, if I figured I’d had it for fifteen years in 2006, that means in 2010 I have had it for nearly 20, longer than some of my readers have been alive. I am glad to see that Middle Earth, where I bought it sometime in the early nineties, is still around and has a website and everything.

I have more keys now than I did in 2006, and have added a thumb drive next to the coffee cup charm. I was more worried about losing the drive than any of the keys.

Residual gratefulness has so far prevented me from removing the tag that says 19 May and my name, attached when I retrieved it from the lost and found.

The inventory: house key, car key, bike lock key, studio keys, safe deposit box key (notable for being manufactured by the Diebold company, makers of problematic voting machines), and in a small testimony to inertia, what would appear to be the same gym locker key that I had four years ago, though the lock itself has gone missing.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about inertia and effort, defaults and comfort zones; when to resist routine, when to settle in. I may have more to say about that, but in the meantime I will re-ask what I asked four years ago:

Where do you keep your keys? How many keys do you have? What are they for? How long have you had your key-storing system (ring, chain, whatever)? Post pictures if you want…

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I’m fairly good about keeping a hold of my keys, but I find I go through keychain charms about every two years. Sometimes, it’s because I get tired of the charm, but usually I simply wear the charm out. When I started college, it was a flower. Soon after, it became a tiny mushroom adorned with a Totoro, and when that fell off, I switched to little stuffed owl will a chime on it. It’s currently a touristy charm from Salem, Mass., with a little witch on it. Who knows what it will be next!